1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to air jet looms, especially dents which are placed in reeds and used in the loom and more specifically to the configurations of the dents within the reed as used in such a system.
2. Description of Prior Art
In an air jet weaving machine or loom, a profile reed creates a tunnel configuration through which a pick travels while traversing from one end of the weaving machine to the other end. The tunnel configuration is formed by the alignment of the dents alongside one another in the reed. Usually, each dent has a nose portion and a chin portion wherein the tunnel configuration is formed in the space between the nose portion and the chin portion. When numerous dents are aligned next to one another in a reed, with the nose portions and the chin portions of each individual dent in alignment with those on either side of it, a tunnel is formed. The air jet looms or weaving machines of the present use a main nozzle in combination with subnozzles to propel picks across the weaving machine through the tunnel configuration of the reed. The specific configuration of the dents within the reed effect the weaving process. A few patents listed below show the current state of the art of reeds for the weaving industry.
The U.S. Patent issued to Enomoto et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,110) titled "Dents For Reed In High-Speed Weaving Machine And Method Of Manufacturing Same" discloses dents that are primarily long and flat and do not have a nose and a chin or have both a full nose and a full chin.
The U.S. Patent to Nitta et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,646), issued titled "Profiled Reed Dent With Weft Passage Recess"; the U.S. Patent issued to Takegawa (U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,858) titled "Method of Measuring Air-speed In A Reed Groove"; the U.S. Patent to Michihara et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,152) titled "Method of Polishing Metal Reed Blades Of Air Jet Loom And Apparatus Therefor"; the U.S. Patent to Rast et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,014) titled "Loom Reed With Plastic Profiled Dents"; and the U.S. Patent to Takahashi (U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,305) titled "Weft Picking Device Of Air Jet Type Weaving Loom" all disclose dents having full nose portions and full chin portions.
The U.S. patent issued to Volland et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,376) titled "Reed With Incorporated Confiner For Shuttleless Loom With Pneumatic Weft Insertion" shows dents having no or little nose portion at all and a full chin portion.
The Anderson et al. U.S. Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,617) entitled "Reed With Removable Dents" and the U.S. Patent issued to Stenhouse (U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,205) titled "Double Dent Reed With Increased Separation Between Front And Back Dent Rows both show straight dents with no nose portion or chin portion at all.
And the U.S. Patent to Migliorini et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,852) entitled "Reed For Textile Machines" discloses a reed having a new and unique form of dent wherein there are teeth formed in the dent and not any nose portion or chin portion.
While the aforementioned patents represent the current state of the art of reeds and dents, there is still room for and a need for improvement in this area. The presently claimed invention was developed to satisfy such needs and improvements by modifying the configuration of dents within the reed from that which is known in the art.